


Plotline for an Astoria/Draco fic that I don't have time to develop (Coppelia)

by CuscusJones



Category: Coppelia (ballet), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Based on Coppelia, Depression, Devotion, Draining lifeforce, F/M, Female Protagonist, Gen, Grown man playing with dolls, Hermione is a doll, Hermione loves books, Hogwarts motto, Homunculi, Human Sacrifice, Love, Lucius Malfoy's A+ Parenting, Mad Scientists, Mad inventor, Madness, Obsession, Plot, Post-War, Rituals, Seemings, Tracking Spell, Under a curse, Write it for me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:07:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24533569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuscusJones/pseuds/CuscusJones
Summary: Hello!  This is a plot outline about Lucius being a mad scientist/inventor who is obsessed about his Hermione doll which he intends to do a human sacrifice to make her alive to be his bride, and oops here comes Draco; perfect timing. Meanwhile Astoria follows him, discovers that Lucius is bananas and Draco is spellbound. She supposes she's the only one around to save the day! I have too many ideas at the moment, but would loooooove to read this story. It's one of the plots I'm less passionate over, so I'd be quite happy for someone else to snap up the idea and write it... as I am knee deep in other stuff... please !!!
Relationships: Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy





	Plotline for an Astoria/Draco fic that I don't have time to develop (Coppelia)

Lucius becomes estranged from his family post-war, and is mad and obsessive. He has sequestered himself in an unknown manor in the woods and nobody knows if he is alive or dead. He makes seemings and play-acts them in different variations of war scenes. The characters eventually fall into disuse as his fantasies turn to Hermione and their future together. He pieces together a ritual he hopes will give Hermione life but needs a human sacrifice.

The real Hermione had a breakdown after the war. After a stay in the Janus Thickey Ward, she left the community and would not say what she planned to do. No one has heard from her since.

Draco and Astoria are engaged. Draco has taken to flying random places to try and forget the war and his regrets. He feels a great deal of guilt for having a future and feeling happy. One day he spots an unknown manor partially hidden by trees. He lands to explore.

In a tower window he sees what looks like Hermione reading a book. The only motion she has is turning pages. Wards don’t let him get near enough to have a better look. His confusion and regret start an infatuation. Thus begins many days where Draco rests in the grounds watching Hermione in the window.

Lucius spies Draco and sees the chance to capture a sacrifice for his ritual. He reasons that Draco would be reborn anyway when Hermione and he have their first child, because his essence will be her life force, even though none of his research suggests that. It’s his way of rationalising sacrificing Draco. He tells himself Draco the second time around will be better, he will be a better father to Draco.

Astoria has noticed Draco taking longer and longer on his alone-time flights. She charms a beetle to hide in his broom which flies back to her each day with the location of where Draco lands. One night after giving Draco a sleeping draught she goes out to the location. She finds a single light in all of the manor illuminating the reading Hermione. Confused by her beetle reports that Draco is visiting over and over, she too repeats her night time forays to the mysterious manor where she only ever sees the single light and Hermione patiently reading.

One night she is startled to see Lucius go and sit with Hermione, tracing his fingers over her face, and is confused to see Hermione does not react, but continues only turning pages. She suspects it is not really Hermione since that is all she does. She reasons that if she were imperiused, Lucius would surely get her to do other things as well. (making the seemings have enough AI to act turns out to be difficult which is why Hermione doll only turns pages. When Lucius plays out scenes of the war, he runs around moving his seemings and speaking for them).

Astoria finds a way to spirit walk/dream walk. Her body would be vulnerable, but she finds a suitable hiding place in the hollow of a great big tree. This allows her to go through the Manor’s wards. At first she is terrified as she finds room after room filled with complete and partial seemings, but then she rationalises that she has seen these people before in town and realises they are not the real people. She finds materials, such as animal body parts, carved bones and wood, scribblings of various theories and understands Lucius has made these lifelike figures. They are highly realistic but appear sallow and deathly. She witnesses Lucius playing out a scene where he has rescued Hermione and she proclaims she loves him forever. 

On another visit, she finds Lucius at the window with Hermione muttering about their future life coming together soon, but she has not yet found out enough to realise his plans are real. She thinks he is merely mad.

Lucius sets a trap for Draco and is delighted that since Draco is already infatuated, the curse to make him obsessed is much stronger than anticipated. Under the curse, Draco unquestioningly enters the Manor, reacquaints himself with Lucius who tells him he need not return home nor contact Astoria. Lucius tells Draco that Hermione is merely suffering malaise since the war which is why she won’t speak (or eat or sleep!) and he has a ritual that will transfer half his happiness to her, but thinks the ritual will work even better with Draco because he is younger and a tad more innocent than Lucius.

Draco agrees to take part, of course. The ritual is slow acting and drains Draco a little each day, transferring his life force to Hermione who begins to look a little healthier every day. Because of his obsession, he has no desire to leave even though the transfer is painful and obviously weakening him and Hermione is due to marry Lucius when she “recovers”. He believes that Hermione is under a curse from Lucius (his way of explaining why Hermione does not appear to see, hear or speak and only turns pages) and whispers that when they are both strong enough he will conquer Lucius and they will flee together. 

Astoria’s charmed bug tells her that Draco is still at the Manor when he fails to return home that night. She spirit walks and finds that Lucius appears to have convinced Draco to move in. From then on, she spends as much time as she can at the Manor but needs to awaken to eat etc. She soon learns what Lucius is doing. Because Astoria can’t communicate in spirit form, she makes a plan for Lucius to discover her body. Lucius does not know why he is unable to rouse Astoria, so places her in the same bedroom as Draco’s. Draco is so obsessed he doesn’t ask how or why Astoria’s sleeping person is here. 

She only re-enters her body when Lucius is asleep and uses her charmed bug to alert her if he wakes. She manages to speak to Draco, however Draco has lost all rationality. She attempts to show him proof, such as Lucius’s theoretical scribblings and the other seemings but Draco makes fabulous stories for every evidence she shows him. She is unable to convince him that Lucius’s ritual will lead to Draco’s death.

Astoria transfigures one of the seemings to look like herself in the bed so that she no longer has to spirit walk. She uses her charmed bug to ensure that she and Lucius never run into each other. Draco is so uncaring about anything other than Hermione that he would not have mentioned the fake and real Astoria to Lucius, though Astoria warns him just in case.

Draco still loves Astoria, but tells her his destiny is with Hermione. Astoria hurts but tells Draco she knows and accepts, and her destiny is to help him and Hermione and without Astoria they will not escape. Thankfully, Draco believes her story. 

Astoria realises that Draco is so far gone, she is no longer able to have any meaningful conversation with him. She decides she will need to pretend to be the Hermione doll. As Hermione, Astoria tells Draco that his life force is allowing her to be more lifelike for short periods but tells Draco to keep telling Lucius that Hermione is still only page turning, otherwise Lucius will marry her straight away.

Astoria comes to realise that Draco will only ever leave the Manor with Hermione which makes an escape a bit more complex. However, during her time pretending to be Hermione she is able to explore the depth of love and admiration Draco has for Astoria and his gladness that Astoria is part of their destiny, which makes her more committed to developing a good plan for escape.

To escape, Astoria has to transfigure another seeming into Draco, glamour herself as Hermione to get Draco to leave, pretend that she is staying behind in sacrifice to hold back Lucius, extract the lifeforce out of the Hermione-doll, break through the wards and find a way to restore the lifeforce to Draco.

While dragging out Draco (he’s half dead) and attempting to get the broom under them, Lucius is in pursuit. Desperate, Astoria casts a ring of fire around the Manor to separate them, only to be horrified when the crazed Lucius tries to breach the flames (he’s too mad to do something sensible, like aguamenti). He of course, catches alight and she supposes he burns to death (open ended!). She has managed to get her and Draco on the broom and fly home.

Astoria worries that she will have to appear as Hermione for the rest of her life in front of Draco. She has restored Draco’s life force but he remains as infatuated with Hermione as before.

Astoria finally discovers how to break Lucius’s obsessive curse (who helps? Narcissa?). She is not sure it’s worked, but Draco tells her to drop the glamour and that he knows she is really Astoria and he realises each time he was speaking to Hermione it was really Astoria. She dissolves the glamour and is gladdened to find Draco’s loving look remains the same even as “Hermione” is melting away.

He proclaims that she is the strongest and fiercest witch he knows and is honoured to have her love. He realises he has been shortchanging Astoria by feeling guilty about their happiness, so he promises to work on letting go of the past.

Possible epilogue:

They have married and are on honeymoon in France. They stumble on a muggle shop with a magic theme. Being entranced with it’s Aladdin’s Cave like wonder they do not meet the owner until they reach the back where sits someone who looks like an older, wiser Hermione. This person claims to not know any Hermione, Hogwarts etc and says she likes to believe magic is real but knows it is not. She claims she has lived in France all her life. Draco and Astoria get a sense she is teasing them, but respect that her answers seem to indicate that she likes her life now and does not wish to reunite with anyone from the past so they end their probing. She respectfully declines their dinner invitation and wishes them well for the future. As they say their goodbyes, not-Hermione shows them a new shipment of figurines she is going to unpack. It’s a chubby dragon on its back and pulling the string makes the dragon laugh and kick its legs while a feather swirls around on its belly.

Draco unthinkingly states Hogwarts’ motto: Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus.

To which Not-Hermione states: I assure you, this dragon is wide awake.

Draco and Astoria leave with the unspoken confirmation that Hermione is well and truly alive and happy.

**  
  
  
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##  **Plot of the original Coppelia (Wikipedia)**

Dr. Coppélius is a doctor who has made a life-size dancing doll. It is so lifelike that Franz, a village youth, becomes infatuated with it and sets aside his heart's true desire, Swanhilda. She shows him his folly by dressing as the doll, pretending to make it come to life and ultimately saving him from an untimely end at the hands of the inventor.

Act I

The story begins during a town festival to celebrate the arrival of a new bell. The town crier announces that, when it arrives, anyone who becomes married will be awarded a special gift of money. Swanilda and Franz plan to marry during the festival. However, Swanilda becomes unhappy with Franz because he seems to be paying more attention to a girl named Coppélia, who sits motionless on the balcony of a nearby house. The house belongs to a mysterious and faintly diabolical inventor, Doctor Coppélius. Although Coppélia spends all of her time sitting motionless and reading, Franz is mesmerized by her beauty and is determined to attract her attention. Still upset with Franz, Swanilda shakes an ear of wheat to her head: if it rattles, then she will know that Franz loves her. Upon doing this, however, she hears nothing. When she shakes it by Franz's head, he also hears nothing; but then he tells her that it rattles. However, she does not believe him and runs away heartbroken.

Later on, Dr. Coppelius leaves his house and is heckled by a group of boys. After shooing them away, he continues on without realizing that he has dropped his keys in the melée. Swanilda finds the keys, which gives her the idea of learning more about Coppélia. She and her friends decide to enter Dr. Coppelius' house. Meanwhile, Franz develops his own plan to meet Coppélia, climbing a ladder to her balcony.

Act II

Swanilda and her friends find themselves in a large room filled with people. However, the occupants aren't moving. The girls discover that, rather than people, these are life-size mechanical dolls. They quickly wind them up and watch them move. Swanilda also finds Coppélia behind a curtain and discovers that she, too, is a doll.

Dr. Coppelius returns home to find the girls. He becomes angry with them, not only for trespassing but for also disturbing his workroom. He kicks them out and begins cleaning up the mess. However, upon noticing Franz at the window, Coppélius invites him in. The inventor wants to bring Coppélia to life but, to do that, he needs a human sacrifice. With a magic spell, he will take Franz's spirit and transfer it to Coppélia. After Dr. Coppelius proffers him some wine laced with sleeping powder, Franz begins to fall asleep. The inventor then readies his magic spell.

However, Dr. Coppelius did not expel all the girls: Swanilda is still there, hidden behind a curtain. She dresses up in Coppélia's clothes and pretends that the doll has come to life. She wakes Franz and then winds up all the mechanical dolls to aid their escape. Dr. Coppelius becomes confused and then saddened when he finds a lifeless Coppélia behind the curtain.

(Note: In some Russian versions of the ballet, after getting caught, Swanhilda confesses to Dr. Coppelius about what she and her friends did and her situation with Franz. Coppelius decides to forgive Swanhilda and teach her how to act like a doll coming to life to fool Franz, thus ending Act 2 on a happier note.)

Act III

Swanilda and Franz are about to make their wedding vows when the angry Dr. Coppelius appears, claiming damages. Dismayed at having caused such an upset, Swanilda offers Dr. Coppelius her dowry in return for his forgiveness. However, Franz tells Swanilda to keep her dowry and offers to pay Dr. Coppelius instead. At that point, the mayor intervenes and gives Dr. Coppelius a bag of money, which placates him. Swanilda and Franz are married and the entire town celebrates by dancing.

**Author's Note:**

> The plot for Coppelia is copied off Wikipedia for easy reference.


End file.
